Coronavirus live updates: Vaccine availability to see exponential rise in coming months, says Harsh Vardhan

This is a slight dip from yesterday's 30,491 cases. Total recoveries in the southern state have now crossed 19.79 lakh while the death toll now stands at 6,994.

Further, the SC said that HCs dealing with Covid management cases should refrain and restrain from dealing with issues which have transnational and international ramifications.

Meghalaya's Covid-19 death toll surged to 414 as 25 more people succumbed to the disease on Friday, while 828 new cases pushed the tally in the northeastern state to 27,755, a senior health department official said.

Puducherry has reports 1,702 new Covid-19 cases and 26 deaths in 24 hours. Number of active cases in the state stands at 17,036.

The apex court was hearing a suo moto case on the Allahabad high court order directing the UP government to provide ambulances with ICU facilities in each village of the state. The UP government told the court there are over 97,000 villages in the state and it is impossible to meet the high court's deadline of one month. To this, the Supreme Court said that high courts should ponder over the practicality of their orders and must avoid passing any judgment which is impossible to implement.

Kerala has extended lockdown imposed in the State to contain the spread of Covid-19, till May 30.

Goa has registered 1,625 new Covid-19 cases and 30 deaths in 24 hours. Number of active cases rose to 19,328. The recovery rate was 84.89%.

As many as 20,937 new cases and 104 deaths were reported in Andhra Pradesh in the past 24 hours. The total number of cases in the state stands at 15,42,079, including 2,09,156 active cases.

Days after a patient, who had recovered from Covid-19, died of mucormycosis or black fungus at a hospital in the State, the Assam Health and Family Welfare Department on Friday released a standard operating procedure to contain the possible spread of the disease.

UP government has declared mucormycosis or black fungus a notifiable disease. The Centre on Thursday had urged states to declare black fugus an epidemic by making it a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

Uttar Pradesh has reported 7,735 new Covid-19 cases, 17,668 recoveries and 172 deaths in the last 24 hours.Total recoveries stand at 15,34,176 and the current death toll is 18,760. The state now has 1,06,276 total active cases.

Karnataka on Friday received the sixth Oxygen Express from Kanalus in Jamnagar in Gujarat carrying 72.94 metric tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen in four cryogenic containers for Covid patients in the state.

Five Himachal Pradesh police personnel have died after contracting Covid-19 so far, state Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu said on Friday. Four of them succumbed to the virus during the first wave, while one died during the second wave, he said. The DGP said that 2,874 police personnel in the state have so far tested positive.

As the severe second wave of Covid-19 sweeps across the country, a Coronadevi temple has come up on the outskirts of the city, thanks to a mutt, seeking divine intervention to put an end to the raging pandemic. This is in line with a 'Plague Mariamman Temple', dedicated by the faithful to the deity Amman seeking her protection earlier when a plague wreaked havoc about 150 years ago.

The Union health ministry on Friday said license has been given to five more manufactures for production of Amphotericin-B, used in the treatment of black fungus, and they will start producing 1,11,000 vials of the drug per month from July.

The Indian Army's Sudarshan Chakra Division on Friday dedicated a 50-bed hospital in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar for the treatment of Covid-19, a defence spokesperson said. The facility will provide Covid care, including oxygen and ambulance service to people in Sri Ganganagar and surrounding areas, he said.